I first learnt about this stone a couple of weeks ago when I was at a workshop on the Treaty of Waitangi. Since I knew I would be in Dunedin only a couple of weeks later, I was determined to find it. It's a memorial to all the Māori men from Parihaka (in the Taranaki) who were wrongfully imprisoned and used as forced labour to build various things around Dunedin including the Anderson's Bay causeway. Many of the men died whilst in Dunedin, and their descendants brought this Rongo stone all the way from the Taranaki down to Dunedin as a memorial to them, unveiled in 1987 by the late Sir Paul Reeves. This was a bit of a pilgrimage for me, and it was very moving. Huge thanks to J for driving me out there to find the stone. . .
My son actually built this memorial, and he is a descendant of Ngapuhi, we lived not far from this sight. I now live in Australia and it is not that I often go back to Dunedin but this is a must
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